Rackspace Launches ‘Cloud Builders’ Business to Support OpenStack
Cloud Deployments

New Service and Support Offerings Help Enterprises and Service
Providers Deploy and Manage OpenStack Clouds

March 08, 2011 10:03 AM Eastern Time

SAN ANTONIO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Organizations deploying OpenStack™, the open source cloud operating
system, can now receive formal service and support offerings from
Rackspace® Hosting (NYSE: RAX), the world's leading specialist in the
hosting and cloud computing industry. Rackspace today announced
Rackspace Cloud Builders, a new business that will offer training and
certification, deployment services, and ongoing support to enterprises
and service providers through its team of OpenStack experts and its
network of technology industry leaders. For the first time, Rackspace
will extend its commitment to customer service, known as Fanatical
Support®, beyond the company’s datacenters to stand behind any OpenStack
cloud deployment.

“We are ready to
support OpenStack deployments anywhere starting today.”

“Customers want to realize the benefits of cloud computing in many
locations depending on their requirements and needs. The promise of
being open, flexible and compatible makes OpenStack the ideal platform;
however, they also want the assurance that a partner like Rackspace is
standing behind them when deploying it in their own datacenters,” said
Jim Curry, General Manager of Rackspace Cloud Builders. “We are ready to
support OpenStack deployments anywhere starting today.”

Rackspace Cloud Builders brings together the foremost OpenStack experts
from the team who built and operate the Rackspace Cloud and from the
recent acquisition of Anso Labs, a professional services company that
has helped large business and government organizations deploy and
operate OpenStack Clouds. The launch of Rackspace Cloud Builders and the
acquisition of Anso Labs reinforces Rackspace’s investment in the
success of OpenStack by driving adoption of the emerging open cloud
standard.

“Our team of OpenStack core contributors are excited to become part of
the Rackspace Cloud Builder’s mission, where we will continue our
commitment to advancing the OpenStack technology and spreading
adoption,” said Jesse Andrews, co-founder of Anso Labs and Director of
Development for Rackspace Cloud Builders. “We look forward to helping
others adopt the emerging open cloud standard with our experience
deploying and operating a large-scale OpenStack cloud.”

Rackspace Cloud Builders will provide training, deployment services and
ongoing support and management to enterprises and service providers via
the team of OpenStack experts and its network of technology industry
leaders:

Deployment Services – Rackspace Cloud Builders, in conjunction with
other experts from the OpenStack community, will help customers design
and deploy OpenStack Clouds.

Support & Management – Customers will have ongoing access to remote
support and escalation assistance from the OpenStack experts,
including proactive monitoring and fixes.

One of the first clients in this new Rackspace program is a
collaborative project led by Cybera Inc. and Compute/Calcul Canada,
where OpenStack is being used to support a new program that reaches out
to Canadian small and medium-sized tech companies. CANARIE, Canada's
Advanced Research and Innovation Network, recently launched the DAIR
(Digital Accelerator for Innovation and Research) Program, which
leverages CANARIE's high-speed network and adds compute and storage
capabilities to deliver a shared R&D environment. To support the DAIR
Program, Cybera and Compute/Calcul Canada are supplying and managing two
large-scale compute and storage nodes using OpenStack as the cloud
service platform. "The ICT entrepreneurs and researchers participating
in CANARIE's DAIR Program need access to responsive and flexible
software to create products and demonstrate them without building a
costly R&D infrastructure themselves," said John Shillington, the
project architect and VP Technology with Cybera. “We are working with
Rackspace Cloud Builders to optimize our cloud deployment and quickly
ramp up OpenStack, so we can ensure a successful pilot for CANARIE.”

Rackspace is working closely with many other experts in the OpenStack
ecosystem, including Autonomic Resources, Canonical, Citrix,
Cloudscaling, Cybera, Dell, Equinix, Intel, Grid Dynamics, Microsoft and
Opscode, to deliver training, system integrations and deployment
services. Rackspace and Dell are encouraging customers interested in
OpenStack to engage in proofs of concept (POCs) with them now, and Dell
also built a new OpenStack installer to turn bare metal servers into
clouds, which they are expected to contribute to the open source
community after completion of field tests.

“Dell has always been committed to developing and promoting open
standards, which is why we proudly support Rackspace in this
initiative,” said John Igoe, Executive Director of Cloud Software
Solutions, Dell. “By deploying OpenStack based solutions quickly,
customers can migrate workloads and applications to cloud based
infrastructures more easily. We’ve been a strong supporter of OpenStack
since its inception and believe a de-facto open source cloud standard is
the right solution for deploying cloud technology.”

About Rackspace Hosting

Rackspace Hosting is the world's leading specialist in the hosting and
cloud computing industry, and the founder of OpenStack, an open source
cloud platform. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical
Support® to its customers, across a portfolio of IT services, including
Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing. Rackspace has been recognized by
Bloomberg BusinessWeek as a Top 100 Performing Technology Company and
was featured on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. The
company was also positioned in the Leaders Quadrant by Gartner Inc. in
the “2010 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service and Web
Hosting.” For more information, visit www.rackspace.com
<http://www.rackspace.com>

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their
registered owners.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve
risks, uncertainties and assumptions. If such risks or uncertainties
materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, the results of
Rackspace Hosting could differ materially from those expressed or
implied by such forward-looking statements and assumptions. All
statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that
could be deemed forward-looking statements, including statements
relating to the launch of future Rackspace products and services,
including those associated with the Rackspace Cloud Builder business
plan, anticipated commencement dates for new products or services, and
the potential acceptance of Rackspace products or services by existing
or potential customers. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include
rapid technological changes that can adversely affect the demand for
Rackspace products and services, available alternative products or
services, shifts in customer demand, changes or deterioration of
strategic relationships, delays in Rackspace's ability to deliver its
products and services, Rackspace's customers' and potential customers'
acceptance and valuation of its new products and services, and other
risks that are described in Rackspace Hosting's Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2010, filed with the SEC on February 22, 2011. Except
as required by law, Rackspace Hosting assumes no obligation to update
these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons
actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in
the future.

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